From Westminster to West Wales
It was the hottest ticket in town, the first chance for the new leader to make his mark.
But as Ed Miliband made his bow at Prime Minister's Question Time, I accompanied the into Ramsey Sound off the Pembrokeshire coast - and more than 250 miles from Parliament.
I'm spending a week away from Westminster, talking to people in the real world about next week's comprehensive spending review. My visit to St David's coincided with a poignant anniversary.
One hundred years ago today, the then St David's lifeboat, Gem (shown above in an RNLI photograph), was wrecked in Ramsey Sound. Its crew had rescued the three man crew of the ketch Democrat. Three crew from Gem lost their lives - the coxswain, John Stephens, and lifeboatmen Henry Rowlands and James Price.
This morning, the current coxswain David John lowered a wreath into the water to mark the anniversary. A memorial service at St David's Cathedral followed, along with the dedication of a plaque in the city's Memorial Gardens.
The RNLI say that in its 141 years the St David's lifeboat has deployed more than 420 times, saving a minimum of 360 lives.
Today's calm weather could not have been more different from the storms of a century ago, and the current lifeboat, Garside is rather more high-tech than Gem, which relied on sails and the rowing power of its crew for power.
My reports on a journey from West Wales to Westminster will air on Wales Today early next week in the run-up to the spending review on October 20.
Hello. I'm David Cornock and I'm parliamentary correspondent for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales. This is the blog for the latest news and gossip from the Westminster village - with a Welsh accent.
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